Adventure, teaching lead GHS grad to Taiwan

September 24, 2001|By Hillary Dickerson

While students settle in to a new school year, the 1996 Gaylord High School alum has had almost three months to settle into her new desk and first-year teaching job thousands of miles from home in Taiwan. It's an experience that has been pretty incredible so far, and she's looking forward to the rest of her one-year assignment abroad.

Middleton, who is the daughter of Jack and Connie Middleton of Elmira Township, began her teaching job at the Cornel School in Taiwan the third week in June. Her arrival at the school wasn't as smooth as she may have anticipated, but she hasn't let that hinder her enjoyment of the truly unique setting in which she finds herself. After a week of curriculum and resource orientation, Middleton dove right into classroom work.

Middleton was prepared to teach kindergarten-age students, but the teaching assignment went through a bit of an adjustment. Instead, she is filling a mixed elementary teaching position. Although she teaches first grade most of the time, she also teaches a fourth-grade remedial class a few hours during the week and a kindergarten art class.

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According to Middleton, her students' skills are perhaps slightly above those of the majority of children the same age and grade level in the United States. She noted, however, that as the children grow, that advantage usually dwindles.

"Parents put a lot of pressure on their children to learn as much as they can," said Middleton. "Almost all of the students at our school started attending at 2 years old. Some of them learn Japanese along with English and Chinese, and on top of that do extracurricular activities like swimming and piano lessons. There is a lot of pressure on them, and there's not a lot of time for them to play and be kids."

Because Middleton has academic minors in environmental science and agriscience, she's also worked to incorporate science into extracurricular activities. "I love science, and I especially love teaching science to kids," noted Middleton. "There aren't a whole lot of animals here that the kids come into contact with, but we've studied bats and insects so far, and they have truly enjoyed it."

Middleton, a 2001 Michigan State University graduate, became interested in international work three years ago while taking part in a study-abroad program in Nepal. She explained that during her sophomore year - like many other students - she had a difficult time deciding on which major she wished to pursue.

"I signed up to go on a study-abroad trip to Nepal to see if I could get a new perspective on things and try to figure out what I wanted to do for a career," explained Middleton. "The trip to Nepal was an amazing experience, and in living with and learning about my host family, I found out that my education was something I wanted to share with other people by becoming a teacher."

After making the decision to pursue employment in a foreign country, Middleton attended an international teaching job fair in Iowa. During the three-day event, she interviewed about 10 times, and tried her best to come to an understanding of what all the different schools were like. "You have to weigh your options," she noted. "You have to be pretty open-minded."

Looking back at her decision to work at the international level, Middleton cited a number of factors. It seemed like the perfect time in her life, because Middleton knew that such an adventure wouldn't be as feasible later on with a family. The job offer in Taiwan also offered her a couple of very attractive perks: small classroom size and paid planning time.

"These are benefits that are hard to come by in the States, and I knew those would really help me focus on improving my skills in my first year of teaching," Middleton added. "But most of all, I was excited about going on an adventure and learning about and living in a new culture."

While in Taiwan, Middleton plans to take advantage of all the opportunities she can. On weekends, she spends time traveling to different sights on the island, and she's in the midst of a Chinese language class. Concluded Middleton, "After the weekend is over, I'm ready to go back to school because I miss (my class)."